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The Global Union Federation for the mining industry, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), acknowledges the measures taken by the Government of Chile to reform its antiquated workplace safety and health culture since the successful rescue of 33 miners at the San Jos&eacute; mine in northern Region III in October 2010. But the ICEM remains adamant that Chile must ratify and implement procedures under International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
Recently, the Chilean government delivered instrument of ratification to the ILO on Convention 187, the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention. This is commendable, the ICEM believes, but Chile must go further by ratifying Convention 176. 
 
&ldquo;Chile is a nation of rich mineral resources, extracted and sold on global markets,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;If the amazing story at San Jos&eacute; taught us anything it is Chile must meet world-class mine safety standards regarding prevention and monitoring.&rdquo; 
 
Warda added that it primarily is at small- and mid-size enterprises, similar to Campa&ntilde;ia Minera San Esteban Primera, the employer at San Jos&eacute;, where standardized and current methods of safety compliance is woefully missing. Just as these enterprises grow and produce more to meet the soaring global minerals boom, so too must Chile keep pace by proving it can provide the necessary safeguards for mineworkers. 
 
ILO Convention 187 is a general set of workplace safety standards that does commit Chile to establish a tripartite body to address overall occupational workplace health and safety practices. But it is not specific to mining. 
 
Mine Safety Convention 176, and its accompanying Recommendation R-183, addresses a range of hazards and specific problems faced by miners. Most importantly, it sets forth responsibility to not only remove mine hazards, but to remove the root causes of those hazards. 
 
The ICEM notes that since San Jos&eacute;, Chile has made some progress on mine safety. The National Service of Geology and Mining (SERNAGEOMIN) has seen an increase in funding and a proposed new law would revise mine regulations, including safety. But only by ratifying and fully implementing Convention 176 will Chile be able to claim that it meets mineworker safety standards inherent to a world-class extractive resources nation. 
 
For further information: ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, or +41 22 304 1842.

Chile Needs More Progress to Eradicate Mine Safety Deficiencies

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Security forces in Iraq are still holding 27-year-old Jihad Jalil, a leader of the Mechanics&rsquo; and Printers&rsquo; Union of ICEM-affiliated General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). Jalil and three other young activists have been held at the Al Muthana airport detention centre since they were picked up on their way to a protest at Tahrir Square in Baghdad on 27 March. (See <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/4449-ICEM-Demands-Release-of-Iraq-Mechanics-Union-Leader ">ICEM news release</a> of 30 May.) 
 
Iraqi authorities had promised release the four within 24 hours at the weekend, but their expected freedom and trial on 5 June never materialized. In a statement released yesterday, the GFIW said their families and attorneys had not been allowed to meet with them at Al Muthana. 
 
The four, including Jalil and students Ahmed Alaa al Baghdaddi, Moyaid Fasil al Taib, and Ali Abdul-Khaliq, were initially charged with inciting violence. But those charges were retracted and new charges placed on them accusing them of carrying false identities. 

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Tahrir Square Rally this weekend
Tahrir Square near the Green Zone in central Baghdad has become a staging ground for regular protests for legitimate workers&rsquo; rights, jobs, basic public services, and against government corruption. The ICEM believes that the government of Nouri Al-Maliki has escalated repression of trade unions, thus cutting hope that a stable, safe, and secure society can take hold through democratic institutions such as trade unions. 
 
The ICEM also points to the forced relocation of trade union leaders from there regular jobs with the sole purpose of removing them from pockets of worker activism at enterprises. In late May, this happened to Jamal Abdul-Jabbar Akram, the President of the GFIW&rsquo;s Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union of Kirkuk. His crime is that he led a walkout in support of contract workers at the state-run Northern Oil Company (NOC). 
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He had been verbally warned by Iraq&rsquo;s Oil Ministry to stop his trade union activities. On 29 May, he was given a ministerial order that he was to be immediately transferred from his job at a Kirkuk oil facility to a remote location. 
 
In a 30 May letter to the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda protested the suppression of democratic freedoms in both the arrests of the four near Tahrir Square and the transfer of Abdul-Jabbar Akram. He wrote, &ldquo;By restricting trade unions and the right of workers to freely engage in democratic assemblies that will benefit their work lives, and Iraqi society as a whole, your government appears to be stepping back in time.&rdquo; (View the full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Iraq%20Letter.pdf ">ICEM letter</a> to Iraq&rsquo;s government here.)

Iraq Fails to Release GFIW Mechanics’ Union Leader, Others as Promised

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Australian coal miners of three unions, led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), gave leadership a strong mandate for industrial action against the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) on 2 June. Some 4,000 miners and coal-processing workers in central Queensland voted by 92% to authorize union leaders to embark on varying industrial actions. 
 
Better than 90% of the 4,000 miners and export facility workers voted in the on-site, two-week ballot. The three unions &ndash; CFMEU, the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) &ndash; are jointly bargaining with the world&rsquo;s number one exporter of metallurgical coal and have been stymied since January by BMA&rsquo;s radical proposals for work rule changes. 
 
The strike ballot was preceded by BMA&rsquo;s breach of Australia&rsquo;s privacy act when it sent text messages to wives and partners of workers telling them that voting was not compulsory. The company used emergency contact numbers of the workers. In order for the ballot to be legal, better than 50% of workers needed to vote, and the strike ballot had to be passed by a simple majority to be valid. 
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BMA is seeking a seven-day roster, instead of a five-day one, flexibility on operators&rsquo; jobs, and retention of bygone WorkChoices-era employment practices. The pay package is also expected to be an issue. 
 
&ldquo;There is a massive concern amongst the workforce about BMA&rsquo;s desire for increasingly family-unfriendly working conditions,&rdquo; said CFMEU Queensland Region Vice President Steve Pierce, referring to the seven-day roster. Pierce expressed concern that many experienced miners would quit their jobs if forced onto non-family-friendly shift schedules. 
 
The unions are seeking job security and enhanced training opportunities. The two sides will resume negotiations on 10 June. 
 
BMA is a 10-year-old joint venture that mines some 58 million tones yearly of coking coal from the Bowen Basin. It consists of seven mines &ndash; Blackwater, Broadmeadow, Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich Park, and Gregory Crinum &ndash; as well as the Hay Point coal export terminal near Mackay on Australia&rsquo;s east coast. The CFMEU represents about 80% of the unionized employees.

Aussie Coal Miners Vote 92% to Strike BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance

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Ten US trade unions, working together as the Coordinating Bargaining Council (CBC) of General Electric (GE) Unions, are negotiating with the industrial and financial giant toward a 19 June expiration of a four-year agreement covering 15,000 workers. 
 
The ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and the International Union of Electronic Workers/Communications Workers (IUE/CWA) are the largest US unions at GE, representing 11,000 industrial workers. Collective agreements for the UE and IUE are national in scope. 
 
UE Local 506 in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted a CBC rally on Saturday, 4 June, in which a larger-than-expected gathering of 4,000 trade unionists took part. The bargaining manifestation was held at Gannon University in the western Pennsylvania city. 

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UE-led Bargaining Rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on 4 June
Negotiations began in New York City on 24 May and after five rounds of bargaining it is evident that pension issues and health care costs have become the main agenda items. GE is trying to separate all new hires from a defined pension plan and shift them to an inferior plan. It also wants higher cost-sharing on medical insurance from workers and introduction of inferior option plans. The unions and GE resume bargaining tomorrow, 7 June. 
 
In opening bargaining statements delivered on 24 May, UE President John Hovis spoke of GE&rsquo;s role in the financial crisis in which a bursting real estate bubble and accompanying credit crunch had dramatically cut GE&rsquo;s stock price, its dividend payouts, and loss of GE&rsquo;s AAA credit rating. Hovis reminded GE executives they had &ldquo;lectured more than once in past negotiations&rdquo; how GE Capital represented a more important and profitable component of the company than its industrial and manufacturing businesses. 
 
&ldquo;The irony did not escape UE members when in the wake of the crisis, GE scrambled to persuade investors that it should once again be viewed as an industrial company,&rdquo; Hovis said. 
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Despite the crisis, GE is faring well in the marketplace and American unions will resist any rollbacks to pension schemes and health care costs. And they will seek a significant yearly wage increase and cost-of-living improvements. GE paid out three dividends to shareholders in the past year and recorded US$14.2 billion in gross profits in 2010. GE&rsquo;s cash surplus was US$82 billion in first quarter 2011, and UE claims GE workers produced an average of US$42,000 each in net profit for the company last year. 
 
View a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/ueunion?blend=24&amp;ob=5">UE YouTube video</a> of 2011 bargaining here.&nbsp; 
 
The CBC of GE Unions in the US consists of the UE, the IUE/CWA, International Association of Machinists (IAM), NABET/CWA, the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE), the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Sheet Metal Workers Union (SMWIU), the United Association of Plumbing and Pipefitting Union (UA), the Firemen &amp; Oilers division of the Service Employees Union (SEIU). 
 
The national set of talks for UE is occurring on behalf of GE Transportation workers in Erie and for GE Energy staff at Fort Edward, New York, while the IUE/CWA has a common pact for GE Aviation in Lynn, Massachusetts, and GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky. Simultaneous bargaining for single-site agreements with the same 19 June expiry date also continues for the UAW and IAM at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as at some 30 other GE worksites, including plastics and chemical operations. 
 
Jim Clark, the head of IUE/CWA, is chairman of the CBC.

American Unions in Tough Talks for 15,000 General Electric Staff

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Since last year, ICEM affiliates in Colombia have been participating in a project to create strong national unions for IMF affiliates in Colombia, Fetramecol and Utrammicol. The project&rsquo;s objective is to strengthen trade union unity. 
 
The ICEM and the IMF have a common interest in strengthening trade unions in Colombia and both federations have been concerned about the situation of Colombian trade unions. Union membership is among the lowest in Latin America due to anti-trade union practices and to the obstacles to trade union activity created by the government. The creation of &ldquo;employment cooperatives&rdquo; (cooperativas de trabajo asociado - CTAs) has led to a deterioration in the quality of jobs, nullified inalienable workers&rsquo; rights and made jobs precarious. 
 
In 2009, a project was started to create national unions for the IMF affiliates in Colombia, Fetramecol and Utrammicol. This project was supported by IF Metall and LO-TCO of Sweden and its main objective was to strengthen metalworkers&rsquo; unions, improve co-operation between affiliates at the national level and strengthen trade union unity. 
 
Three regional workshops and one national workshop take place four times a year and the project is due to conclude in 2012. To date, these workshops have discussed such issues as collective agreements and collective bargaining and developed proposals to deal with the problems that face trade unionism at the national level. This year&rsquo;s central theme is trade union structures. 
 
When the project began, the main objective was to create the conditions to unite IMF affiliates in Colombia into one national organisation. However, the project, which also covers Chile, is now focusing on the creation of broader industrial unions and political alliances in the regions, in the context of the merger of three major international trade union federations (IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF). 
 
In 2010, Carlos Bustos, ICEM coordinator in Colombia, invited IMF affiliates to participate in the federation&rsquo;s current activities and in various national meetings. Meanwhile, Colombian ICEM affiliates began to attend the project seminars, explains Nohora Tovar, of Fetramecol and joint national coordinator of the project. 
 
Bustos adds that this year it was decided to increase participation of ICEM colleagues in the three regions where the project is operational (Bogot&aacute;, Boyac&aacute; and Medell&iacute;n). Luis Vel&aacute;zquez of Utrammicol, who is the other joint national coordinator, says that participation has been very good and IMF affiliates have welcomed the initiative as well. 
 
Both explain that at the end of 2010 the National Council formed by Fetramecol and Utrammicol was renamed the Unity Council and extended to include the ICEM affiliates. This council established committees to draft statutes and, along with ICEM colleagues, established an action plan with a dual focus: first, initiatives to promote unity and second, development of education and training. 
 
Marino Vani, from the IMF&rsquo;s Regional Office, explains that the project has forced each organisation to assess the situation and promote joint actions to strengthen their unions and formulate common objectives. The project proposal to discuss particular issues with a view to developing a trade union agenda has provoked discussion and resulted in new trade union practices, although the unions have yet to develop a broader consensual strategy with a unified agenda and action. It is hoped that the project will encourage union members to learn and to understand the need to create united and representative national trade unions that include precarious and outsourced workers and in this way strengthen the position of all members.

Creating strong unions in Colombia

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On the 18 April, 16 union leaders from the ICEM affiliate United Workers Union of Liberia (UWUL) and the IMF affiliate Metal, Mechanical Electrical Communications and Allied Workers Union (MMECAWU) met in Monrovia to discuss the possibility of a merger and to develop a program of cooperation. 
It is now 15 years since civil war left Liberia in ruins. Not only is there much work to be done in this post war era to re-establish infrastructure, the country is also engaged in nation building including revitalizing the educational, health, security, economic and governance sectors. For the last seven years Liberians have been consolidating peace, receiving support for development from the international community and making strides in securing foreign investment attracted by the countries abundant natural resources. 
Whilst some multinationals like Firestone have been in Liberia for many decades, ArcelorMittal and BHP Billiton are the new kids on the block, with substantial recent investments in iron ore extraction. Historically, foreign companies that have been granted concessions have been expected to take care of service delivery to people in the area, in the form of housing, education and health services. This system still exists today and further disempowers workers to challenge employers as it is not only their jobs at stake but also their homes. 
Organised labour has recognized that unity is needed for bargaining power to stand up to these multinational companies and meet the challenges to build worker rights, create decent work and improve the lives of workers. Liberia's two labour federations have united to form a strong single federation in the country. The forestry union and mining union merged to create UWUL. Now, building on these successful mergers and encouraged by their benefit for worker power, UWUL and MMECAWU have agreed to work towards a merger. 
 
At the April meeting, the unions formulated and signed a memorandum of understanding committing to form a joint committee to develop a programme of collaboration that would culminate in a merger within a 24 month period. Central to the joint work would be organizing workers of multinational companies. 
The unions agreed to take the memorandum of understanding to their constituencies to gain the support of workers for the merger. The IMF has offered support and guidance to the unions' efforts in the interest of building strong worker representation in Liberia.

Liberian Unions Work Towards a Merger

The Pulp and Paper sector of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) elected Jan-Henrik Sandberg, President of Sweden&rsquo;s Paperworkers Union (Pappers), as chairman of the global sector. Sandberg replaces Jouko Ahonen, President of Paperiliitto of Finland, who will become the head officer for the Council of Finnish Industrial Unions (TP) on 1 June. 
 
Sandberg&rsquo;s nomination came from a work group meeting of Geneva-based ICEM&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper sector on 23 May, and the election came on 25 May by the ICEM Executive Committee. 
 
Sandberg, 52, has been President of 18,000-member Pappers since 2006. Prior to that, he worked for 17 years as a recovery boiler operator in the pulp mill of Korsn&auml;s AB in G&auml;vle, Sweden. He served as Pappers local branch chairman at Korsn&auml;s in G&auml;vle from 2001 to 2006 and previously served as education director of the branch union. 
 
Ahonen had served as President of Paperiliitto since 2003. In his new duties with TP, he will oversee collective bargaining and industrial policy for 14 Finnish trade unions. 
 
Both Ahonen and Sandberg steered their respective trade unions through pivotal and successful labour disputes in their countries, Ahonen in a 2005 industry-wide lockout in Finland and Sandberg in a 2010 strike by paperworkers across industry in Sweden. 
 
The ICEM Pulp and Paper sector serves as the global coordinating and support-giving body for 90 trade unions across the world in the pulp, paper, and packaging industries. The ICEM is a global trade union federation representing 20 million workers in 132 countries. 
 
For further information: Dick Blin, ICEM Pulp and Paper Officer, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842.

ICEM Pulp and Paper Sector Elects New Global Chairman

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ICEM&rsquo;s North American affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), signalled its intent to join a federal lawsuit with two US NGOs against Omnova Solutions for alleged failure to report toxic chemicals. 
 
The USW, the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League fulfilled a 60-day requirement providing notice of intent to file in US Federal District Court over alleged insufficient reporting of storage and release of toxic chemicals into the environment from Omnova&rsquo;s performance chemicals plant in Chester, South Carolina. 
 
Omnova Solutions, based in the US, is a global producer of specialty chemicals, emulsion polymers, and decorative products. Its performance chemicals division provides binders, coatings, adhesives, and additives primarily for the paper, textile, and carpet industries. 
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The suit by the three parties would fall under the US Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986. It will allege that Omnova, active in Europe, Asia, and North America, failed to accurately complete and submit required toxic chemical release forms for 2008 and 2009 to report releases of potassium permanganate and toluene diisocyanate. The groups also allege that the company failed to report its 2008 releases of isopropyl alcohol. Under the law, Omnova could be subject to civil penalties up to $US32,500 per violation, per day with liabilities that ultimately could reach millions of dollars. 
 
While all three chemicals can irritate the nose and throat, health warnings advise that toluene diisocyanate may cause cancer, lung irritation and an asthma-like allergy. Potassium permanganate may decrease fertility and affect the liver and kidneys. 
 
&ldquo;We have found that employers who disrespect workers often treat the environment with the same contempt,&rdquo; said USW Special Counsel Lynn Agee. &ldquo;Until OMNOVA starts obeying our laws and respecting workers, we&rsquo;ll continue in our efforts to bring the company to justice.&rdquo; 
 
The Chester facility is one of six OMNOVA plants that stores large volumes of extremely hazardous chemicals in quantities that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems a potential public risk and subject to risk management planning.

USW Joins US Environmental Groups in Lawsuit Against Chemicals Company Omnova

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Poland&rsquo;s trade unions at the state-run coal company, Jastrzębska Spolka Weglowa (JSW), gave their consent to a 30% float of JSW shares on the Warsaw bourse through a deal reached with the government early this month. The unions, including Solidarność, gained a ten-year guarantee of employment for 22,000 workers. 
 
Negotiations continue today, 23 May, over specifics reached in the 5 May framework agreement, and conclusions must also be reached over pay increases. JSW and the unions had been engaged in a four-month dispute over job security and the effects of the stock listing. 
 
Poland&rsquo;s Treasury Ministry now will list a 30% stake of Europe&rsquo;s largest coking coal company in July, instead of the 30 June date as originally planned. The government will maintain 51% stake in JSW, but the possibility exists that future sales of shares will occur. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="133" />
The government offered a five-year guarantee of employment, while the unions maintained and won ten years. They have retreated some on wage demands totalling 10%, but common agreement is expected to come on that issue. What still must be negotiated is the shape and structure of free-of-charge shares to staff, which will not be bound as an entitlement, certain provisions inside a 2007-2015 strategy plan of JSW, and the appointment of board members to the partially privatised company. 
 
JSW is the first of Poland&rsquo;s major coal producers to list on a bourse. Next year, the thermal coal producer Katowicky Holding Weglowy (KHW), numbering 19,200 employees, is expected to merge with the state-run logistics and export company Wegokoks, with initial public offering (IPO) to follow. Solidarność is supporting the merger of the companies. 
 
In another mining area inside Poland, high tensions in wage talks at the state-run copper company, KGHM Polska Miedz SA, turned to unruliness on 5 May when angry copper workers tried to storm union-management pay negotiations at the company&rsquo;s center in Lubin. Workers attacked private security guards and broke windows in trying to enter the premises. Three workers involved in the melee were sacked for the disturbance and 12 others are under investigation. 
 
Workers want more than the 4.5% offer on the table from Europe&rsquo;s second largest copper producer, which has seen profits double to &pound;1.9 billion in 2010. Some 18,500 KGHM workers have been waiting for fair wage gains since bargaining began in mid-April.

Tentative Accord between Coal Unions, JSW in Polish Privatisation

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The European Trade Union Confederation&rsquo;s (ETUC) 12th Congress in Greece from 16-19 May adopted the &ldquo;Athens Manifesto,&rdquo; calling for necessary financial governance and tax changes in a social Europe. The manifesto also rejects deregulation and flexibility measures as false solutions to the sovereign debt crises hovering over several European countries &ndash; including Greece. 
 
Some 500 delegates from 36 European nations attended, with those delegates consisting of representatives from 82 national labour centre federations and 12 continental union federations. 
 
The manifesto states that wages are not the enemy of the economy, but rather the motor of it and that the autonomy of social partners in collective bargaining must be respected. &ldquo;The ETUC will fight for a European New Deal for workers against austerity governance and for European economic governance that serves the interests of the European people and not the markets,&rdquo; ETUC said. It places a priority on combating youth unemployment and a priority to improve the working conditions of all European workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="206" />
Bernadette S&eacute;gol
The confederation said: &ldquo;The ETUC commits to demand effective and stringent regulation of financial markets and ratings agencies and to campaign and claim that fundamental social rights take precedence over economic freedoms and consequently enshrine this principle in a Social Progress Protocol in European treaties, in a revised Posted Workers Directive and in internal market regulation known as Monti II. An action day has been approved to promote the Manifesto's aims.&rdquo; 
 
The Congress also debated a minimum wage and pay coordination across national borders. Outgoing ETUC Secretary-General John Monks set the tone for the week on opening day, 16 May, by saying, &ldquo;Austerity is not working.&rdquo; 
 
In a letter to European finance ministers that accompanied an emergency resolution at the start of the Congress, Monks wrote, &ldquo;The ETUC calls on you to immediately change course. Brutal austerity, both in terms of public finance and in terms of wages, is not working but instead undermining the economies of countries such as Greece and Ireland.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="206" height="167" />
EMCEF Delegation at ETUC Congress
In a secret-ballot election, the longest-serving member of ETUC&rsquo;s executive committee, Bernadette S&eacute;gol, head of Uni Europa, was elected Secretary-General to replace Monks. A French national, she previously worked at the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and at one of Uni&rsquo;s predecessor unions, the banking and commerce federation Euro-FIET. 
 
Elected Deputy General Secretaries were Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of ITGLWF and of ETUC-TCL, and Jozef Niemiec, the lone holdover from the Monks era on ETUC&rsquo;s seven-member Secretariat leadership team. Itschert is Belgian and advocates an ETUC that &ldquo;turns political developments into actions.&rdquo; Niemiec is Polish, was an engineer in Krakow and member of NSZZ Solidarność during trade union revival in Poland, and was involved in European integration of his home country. 
 
Elected confederal secretaries were Judith Kirton-Darling, formerly with the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation; Veronica Nilsson, who worked at TUAC and since March 2010 served as special advisor to ETUC; Claudia Menne, previously with the German DGB national labour centre; and Luca Visentini, from the Italian labour centre UIL. 
 
ETUC statutes dictate a single term for the Presidency of the confederation. Wanja Lundby-Wedin of Sweden thus stepped down and Ignacio Fern&aacute;ndez Toxo, President of CC.OO of Spain, was elected President of ETUC for the next four years.

ETUC Adopts ‘Athens Manifesto’ at 12th Congress

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